Samsung Electronics Australia has announced the winners of its 2024 Solve for Tomorrow competition. The nationwide program invites young Australians aged 14 to 24 years to develop innovative solutions for real-world issues using STEM skills, creativity, critical thinking and collaborative teamwork.
Queensland-based 19-year-old, Bradley Cox has taken out the top prize. His start-up, Exam Insights, provides a question bank in every classroom, built from resources students and teachers already have. Launched in late 2023, the platform centralised past exam papers into accessible question banks specifically for Year 12 QLD external exams.
After seeing the platform benefit over 22,000 users across Queensland, Brad and his co-founder, Jason Zhong, soon realised they’d created a solution with far-reaching potential. They expanded Exam Insights into a tool that could help anyone organise and align their own resources.
Jason Zhong & Bradley Cox (Major Winners – Exam Insights).
As the major prize winner, Brad has won $10,000 to put towards enhancing the platform with new features and services, expanding across Australia and supporting new partnerships.
“What began as a tool to solve our own problem quickly grew into a platform designed to empower classrooms everywhere. Being selected as the winner of Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow competition is an incredible honour and validation of our work and impact on students and educators alike,” he said.
“STEM is an incredible field where curiosity and creativity come together to create solutions that matter. To young Australians interested in studying STEM, I say start small, learn as you go, and don’t be afraid to fail—it’s all part of the process. Most importantly, focus on how your skills can help others. That’s where the real impact lies, and that’s what makes the journey worthwhile.”
Brett Turnbull (Samsung Electronics Australia), Keziah Furnell, Jason Zhong, Shuwei Guo & Dr Kirsten Banks (Solve for Tomorrow 2024 ambassador).
Queensland-based 22-year-old, Keziah Furnell has been awarded the Runner-Up 19-24 prize with her business, STEM Sisterhood, aimed at fostering greater participation in STEM for girls and women via workshops exploring different STEM fields, problem solving and collaboration.
As the prize winner in this category, Keziah has been awarded $5,000 to go towards developing new workshops that will expand into more regional towns, purchase further scientific equipment for the workshops, and enable further engagement with female STEM experts.
“I was inspired to tackle the issue of underrepresentation of regional and public-school female STEM students when I walked into my first university engineering lecture and discovered only 12 women out of 120 students,” she said.
“I wanted to make girls see from a young age that the ‘play’ they engage in is science that has real scientific pathways. My workshops focus on exploring chemistry through the wonderful world of bath bombs or kitchen chemistry. I am so grateful to be chosen as a recipient of the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition and would advise any young Australians interested in studying STEM to go for it – your ideas are valid and important, and anyone has the capacity to change the world.”
Keziah Furnell, Jason Zhong & Shuwei Guo.
Sydney-based 16-year-old, Shuwei Guo is the minor winner within the 14 to 18 year-old category with his personalised education platform concept, Enlight, a free and AI-powered short-form platform designed to make learning addictive by tailoring education to individual knowledge levels and learning type by harnessing specific nomenclature and proprietary AI models to gamify traditional education.
The $5,000 prize money will go towards establishing a pilot program within local schools, libraries and community centres, as well as working with educators to refine the platform and establishing a volunteer program to assist those using the platform.
“I was inspired to tackle educational inequality after seeing firsthand how limited access to quality learning resources can impact students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Something imperative to my design and iteration processes was making a product that you and your friends would genuinely and consistently use – not ‘just’ another mediocre GPT wrapper,” he said.
“My formative experiences as a student taught me examples of how much personalised, engaging educational content can have a poignant impact in helping students reach their full potential, and I’m grateful to Samsung for the opportunity to showcase how technology can be used to create positive change in our communities.”
In addition to the prize money, each of the three winners received a Samsung productivity pack including a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G/Galaxy A55 5G, 32-inch Smart Monitor M70D UHD and Galaxy Buds2.
Samsung Electronics Australia director of corporate marketing and Solve for Tomorrow 2024 judge, Brett Turnbull said, “At Samsung, we’re dedicated to empowering young Australians to turn their innovative ideas into impactful solutions. This year’s entries showcased the remarkable creativity and purpose-driven mindset of this generation, with participants tackling a diverse range of issues with passion and ingenuity. It’s inspiring to see the potential of STEM in helping develop meaningful change and shape a better future for all.”
Astrophysicist, STEM advocate and Solve for Tomorrow 2024 ambassador, Dr Kirsten Banks added, “I’m continually inspired by the ingenuity and passion of young Australians, and it was exciting to see that firsthand in the submissions. The Solve for Tomorrow 2024 entries demonstrate the power of STEM to address real-world challenges, and the innovative solutions shared make me excited to see what comes next from these bright and curious minds.”
To participate in Solve for Tomorrow, young Australians aged 14 to 24 years needed to submit a 400-word proposal outlining the issue facing their community and how they would use STEM to solve it, attend a Design Thinking Workshop, and then submit a final video pitch proposal.
A panel of judges reviewed the proposals and selected the winners based on a scoring system analysing their STEM application, creativity, feasibility, relevancy and presentation.